Out and About

With almost 3,000 kilometres under the belt, and a couple of beers along the way, “The Landy” pulled into Ayers Rock this morning just in time for ‘smoko…

And I must say, I had a pleasant evening at the Kulgera Pub last night, so if you are heading up or down the Stuart Highway be sure to drop in.

Now I know some of you have been wondering how do I pass the time following the white line along the blacktop for these sort of distances, especially as Janet-Planet, the wonderful Mrs Landy, hasn’t joined the trip yet…

Yes, her presence in “The Landy” is always engaging and enlightening…

Well I’ve got quite a comprehensive music library consisting of around 10,000 songs so I’ve plenty to choose from, but oddly, I have listened to very little music on this trip and have spent most of my time tuned into ABC Country.

Yes, the Australian National Radio Broadcaster…

Now before you go knocking it, give it a go I say, there is plenty of topical stuff they talk about, and yes I had to endure a couple of business reports giving a read on the value of the Australian dollar. I suppose the boss will be pleased to know that I tuned in but crikey, thought I had left the trading desk behind!

But anyway, the topics are far-reaching, some serious, others amusing. One I listened to was a standout though. It was an interview with a bloke who works for the Department of Agriculture and his speciality is bee keeping.

We all love honey right?

Hey, before I get on with this yarn, don’t windmills transport you to the Australian Outback in a nano-second…

Anyway, predictably the interviewer had to get a Winnie-the-Pooh joke in early, it was an oldie, but still an oldie, if you know what I mean. But this bloke wasn’t going to be detracted from the topic…

Besides, I’m sure he has heard them all.

Actually, lets not call him “he”, but as I can’t remember his name let’s call him Cyril, ok?

Well Cyril gave a fascinating account of bee keeping to the point I’m sure he had people running out ordering a hive. Did you know they post Queen bees around in the mail, yep, postage stamp attached.

It kinda puts a new spin on airmail, I guess..

Anyway, Cyril recounted how he first became interested in bee keeping at the young age of 10 years and was encouraged whole-heartedly by his parents. He eventually went on to do some agriculture studies that were the pathway to a life-long career and passion.

And clearly, Cyril was passionate about this, let there be no mistake about that!

But the clincher for me in this whole interview, and it had me in sticthes, was his account of how, as a teenager, he had a beehive in his bedroom.

Yes, that’s right, a beehive in his bedroom.

Cyril had a hole cut out in the window for the bees to come and go and glass panels in the hive so he could observe the behaviour of the bees. Oh, don’t worry, there wasn’t a dark side to this story, no sting in the tale, so to speak…

Seriously, I tried to sneak all kinds of things into my bedroom as a teenager and let me say I was stung on more than one occasion by an ever-watchful mother – but a beehive in your bedroom?

Okay, I get it, some of you might like a bit of honey in the struggling paddock, just to sweeten things up a bit, but I’m betting you scooped it out of a jar, not straight from a beehive at the bottom of the bed!

But Cyril’s story is just so far out there I think he gets away with it…

Well thanks Cyril, odd as it may seem, your interview was a highlight for me as I stared down that endless white-line and it helped me pass the time away as I travelled through the Australian Outback; the Bush…

Anyway, as I mentioned, I’m at “The Rock” which is a first for me despite extensive outback travel and interestingly, it is mostly referred to as Ayers Rock in much of the signage around the Yulara Resort, rather than Uluru as it is now known. I find some comfort in that as I grew up knowing it as Ayers Rock.

Not that I can’t respect change, but I will take the liberty of referring to it in the way I have always been accustomed…

But there will be no climbing for me, I will be content to get some great photos of it as the sun sets on another outback day…

6 thoughts on “A Yarn Around the Campfire – With a Queen (Bee)”

I’ve ordered queen bees in the mail in past years from Purvis Brothers back east. We’re in a hiatus from beekeeping while we have Rick’s mother.

Bees in the bedroom…now that’s a new one! We did have a commercial beekeeper here that used to sleep among his hives with a loaded 45 in case of bear attack. They have a lot of bears over in Oregon’s Coast Range. That was a case of the man in the bee’s bedroom. Well, almost… 🙂

Local ABC (emergency) channel is awesome for quirky colourful conversations you’d never hear on mainstream radio. Besides music, do you listen to audio books and/or podcast episodes to keep you entertained on the white-line-trail? Works for me. Great photo of Ayer’s Rock. Keep safe on the track.